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June 29, 2014

Stinking to high heaven! Actually, it wasn't quite the middle, more like the right lane. And this probably should have been an addendum to Fox Friday. Nevertheless, here it is.

It was about the 1500 block of W. Texas St. here in Midland, Texas, a couple of weeks ago. And it's rather noteworthy since it's so far inside the city. Why was he there? Maybe all this rain lately had him confused.

Most animal carcasses will start to smell after a while in the outdoors. But with a skunk, no waiting!

P.S. Folks accostomed to urban driving might not have encountered skunks in the roadway before. In any case, a driver who would run over a skunk at residential speed is too drunk to drive.

Warrant -- A showing of probably cause can get a warrant to bug our calls and get emails that are less than 180 days old. But there are easier ways to get emails.

Court order -- An assertion that info is relevant to a criminal inquiry can get a court order that will authorize the collecting of the phone numbers called or received in real time. The court order can also get them real-time access to computer IP addresses. Further, they can get opened emails and unopened emails older than 180 days without notifying the customer.

Administrative subpoena -- No court order needed for historical phone records or historical records of IP addresses. Opened and unopened emails that are at least 180 days old can be obtained with only a subpoena as long as they notify the customer whose email they've requested.

It's not clear why 180 days should make any difference or why opened emails are treated differently than opened emails. And in fact, bills are bouncing around both the House and the Senate that would require the government to get a warrant for any emails no matter how old they are. We'll see what happens.

June 26, 2014

It wasn't too awfully long ago that the morning paper's editorial board seemed gung ho over the Energy Tower -- the downtown skyscraper that was slated to occupy the space where the empty courthouse now sits in Midland, Texas. The newspaper folks have always had their ear to the ground and seldom strayed too far from the general consensus on issues. But this time and were a little slow coming around.

This brings us to Voice of Midland, the grass roots organization telling truth to power and giving the average citizens a much needed voice in the whole thing.

As recently as last March the morning paper editorial board was chiding VoM for its campaign to petition the city council to reverse the decision. The MRT.com editorializers parroted the city position that it was a done deal and that it was too late to do anything about it.

However, their effort to gather signatures to force a charter election to stop public assistance for the Energy Tower project appears to be flawed. According to a city official, a charter election cannot invalidate existing contracts or commitments properly executed by the city. On the surface, it appears the Voice of Midland didn’t do their homework before taking its message and protest to Midland. It could be an opportunity lost considering how much opposition Energy Tower has in this community.

Emphasis mine.

VoM's petition was addressed to the city council requesting that it call for an election to amend the city charter to stop the project. The MRT editorial dutifully relayed the city's answer, but that answer addressed something else entirely. Was there really an "existing contract" that bound both parties instead of an agreement to agree? Was the Energy Tower arrangement a done deal? Apparently not.

The MRT itself said the other day that the whole thing could be scrapped by the city council. See headline below:

So who didn't do their homework? Voice of Midland did theirs.

--------------Editor's note: How disrespectful. How would you like it if someone pointed out all your mistakes? -- Robo-ed | I'd hire them! -- Sleepless.

June 25, 2014

In the past five and a half years Barack Obama has probably generated a level of paranoia among Americans not even experienced during the Nixon administration. At least Nixon hired some criminals to do his dirty work and didn't have the entire federal bureaucracy doing it. (Nixon tried to draft the bureaucracy to do illegal business, and the fact that they declined to do it had less to do with strong ethics than allegiance to a different political party.)

So with all the surveillance going on in America, in particular but not exclusively by the NSA, one has to wonder what it's all worth to the country if the people collecting it can't interpret it, or if they can, they have a boss who had rather read about it in the newspaper.

June 24, 2014

He's given us numerous reasons, but Gowdy's performance in the IRS hearings is something to behold. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen got high and mighty the other day when someone said they didn't believe him. But smugness can only take a person so far. And Trey Gowdy was just the person to bring him down a notch.

It's possible that no criminal charges will ever develop from these hearings. But it's heartwarming to see someone like Gowdy put an arrogant bureaucrat in his place.

Democrats were whooping it up last year when Elizabeth Warren berated some bank regulators, even though she had it wrong. Democrats have so far ignored the IRS scandal, and there's every reason to expect them to stand behind any bureaucrat who advances the party line even when he/she broke the law to do so. But the rest of us can take comfort in small public comeuppances such as the one Gowdy gave Koskinen.

June 23, 2014

Jim Hightower, once the future Rush Limbaugh of the left, is still shilling for the Democrat agenda. And a recent column of his, What job Creation Numbers Don't Tell Us, actually made some good observations. What the jobs numbers don't tell us is that the number of jobs created since the Great Recession officially ended roughly equal the number of jobs lost during the Great Recession. The problem is that the population still grew during that period of time with about 15 million more working-age people in the job market, many of whom are looking for work.

Hightower's solution is for congress to pass a national jobs program, among other big government projects. Don't we already know this is not a viable long term solution?

What we need is a free market with minimal government involvement. End government/corporate cronyism. Eliminate or at least reduce the barriers to entry by new businesses. Encourage free enterprise. End the tax code as we know it and implement a flat tax. We've gone a long way down the road toward a big government with its hands in everything. There's a possibility that's it too late to reverse course. But that's too pessimistic.

American was built on ambition, creativity, freedom, and pride. Those traits are still here, just dormant. Some day that sleeping giant will awaken and cast off the chains that hold it down. May it come sooner rather than later.

June 22, 2014

The topic of sleep is an important one for the staff and crew here at Sleepless in Midland. So studies, articles, and internet factoids about it get our attention. In that regard, a neat little website called weirdnewsfiles.com produced this item titled Sleeping facts you didn’t know. Here's a sampling:

- It's now OK to wake up a sleep walker. - Bugs in a mattress can survive up to a year without eating. - A siesta protects your mental and spiritual health. In addition to your memory, it improves your cognitive function and mood. - More than 100,000 car accidents happen in the U.S. every year from drowsiness. The potential for drowsiness increases by 6% when talking on cell phone. [Maybe they need more interesting friends. -- Robo-ed.]

And finally this one:

- In a six-year study of one million adults, it was shown that those who slept 6-7 hours per night had lower death rates than those who slept eight hours. [8 hours sleep will kill you? Good luck selling that one. Bumper sticker: "If you don't wake up early, you might not wake up!"-- Robo-ed.]

7) Government investigations of liberal wrongdoing would be handled by friends, associates, or campaign contributors of the liberal being charged. ... 12) Conservative talk radio, blogs, websites and especially Fox News would be regulated out of existence and only government-approved media sources would be allowed. ... 14) The IRS would be allowed to audit people solely for contributing to conservative candidates or being a member of conservative groups. ... 20) Guns would be confiscated from everyone except the criminals, the cops, the military, and the bodyguards for rich liberals.

June 20, 2014

Welcome to Fox Friday, the weekly photo diary of a feeding station set up for some of the wild foxes living in the urban environment of Midland, Texas. The number of foxes living in the area is completely unknown, however, last summer the camera captured three foxes in one frame. Lately there has been only one fox foraging at a time. The one we see most often is "Old Crooked Tail," distinguished by a bushy tail that in a profile looks as if it's broken. However, looked at head-on it appears to be more of corkscrew than hard bent.

We have a mystery this week.

Two shots of Old Crooked Tail taken about nine seconds apart early last Saturday morning. Notice how bushy the tail is. Then see below.

The scene is Sunday night. Look at how scrawny that tail is. It's as if she got in a fight with a chain saw.

Now skip ahead one more day.

It's Monday night, and look at that bushy tail. It's an over night hair growth miracle.

On the other hand, maybe there two Old Crooked Tails. It is interesting that two different animals in the same territory have that same crooked tail, one bushy, one scrawny. Siblings? Offspring? We just don't know.

June 19, 2014

Old people are generally happier than young people. Why is that so? When you hear scientists explain it, there's a forehead slapping "Aw, I knew that," affect. Laura Carstensen does explain it right here (transcript). Excerpt:

As we age, our time horizons grow shorter and our goals change. When we recognize that we don't have all the time in the world, we see our priorities most clearly. We take less notice of trivial matters. We savor life. We're more appreciative, more open to reconciliation. We invest in more emotionally important parts of life, and life gets better, so we're happier day-to-day. But that same shift in perspective leads us to have less tolerance than ever for injustice.

Less tolerance for injustice wouldn't seem to be an element of happiness unless they had the capability to right that injustice. Maybe that's why old timers vote in such high percentages. Let's continue:

By 2015, there will be more people in the United States over the age of 60 than under 15. What will happen to societies that are top-heavy with older people? The numbers won't determine the outcome. Culture will. If we invest in science and technology and find solutions for the real problems that older people face and we capitalize on the very real strengths of older people, then added years of life can dramatically improve quality of life at all ages. Societies with millions of talented, emotionally stable citizens who are healthier and better educated than any generations before them, armed with knowledge about the practical matters of life and motivated to solve the big issues can be better societies than we have ever known.

For some reason I'm reminded of an old joke. When you're young, old people just won't stop talking. When you're old, young people just won't listen.

June 18, 2014

Mickey Kaus is a brilliant political observer, and he suggests the Dems are trying to set up the Republicans to go overboard with their animosity toward Barack Obama. That would ignite the Democrat Party base and motivate those Democrats that might otherwise sit out the midterm elections.

According to this theory Obama spreads some untruth or deliberately and obviously impairs serious investigations into Benghazi, the IRS, or some other scandal, and Republicans take the bait. They blow their stacks and come across as irrationally angry. Democrat and independent voters viewing it all through the MSM lens see Obama as the victim and decide to send Republicans a message at the ballot box: Quit being so mean.

It makes sense. And when we hear talk of impeachment we can sense that it's working. Obama knows how to win elections. It's the only thing he knows how to do, but he does know how to do that.

June 17, 2014

We're at the airport at Midland, Texas, getting some photos of the parking situation. There's a new parking lot under construction which should help if airport traffic doesn't increase.

My most recent experience with airport parking occurred Saturday around 1:00pm. Like any compliant citizen I sought to arrive one hour prior to flight time. But the parking lot was about 110% full. Every legal spot was occupied, and most of the areas marked with yellow stripes had vehicles sitting on them, too.

I lucked out. A fellow on foot spotted me and pointed toward his car. He backed out, and I pulled in. Whew!

Today, Tuesday, is a whole different picture with the lot only 80% to 90% full. A newly constructed lot is expected to open in a few weeks, according to the morning paper. And that should bring some relief to any other hapless traveler who arrives at just the wrong time, like I did Saturday.

Actually, the city has made a half axed effort to help out. There are signs pointing to overflow parking.

But once there it's hard to figure out where the overflow parking is. There certainly are a lot of no-parking signs. For example:

Man, living in a first world country is no walk in the park.

One more thing. As noted above, the morning paper contained an article about the new parking lot, and here's a telling bit about how government thinks about parking fees:

Because parking is the greatest revenue source for the airport, the proposed rates are meant to pay off the construction cost of the new lot in three to four years.

But after the new lot is paid off, parking rates will not revert to the current rates. Esterly said the revenue also will cover other cost increases.

Airport parking is the money maker for the airport. Maybe concessions to the airlines to get them to fly here offsets any gate rental fee. And there's the government truism about taxes and fees: What goes up, stays up.

June 16, 2014

There's a very interesting map found at this businessinsider.com link naming the most common language spoken in each of the states other than English. Spanish is a good bet for the second most common language. But there are a few exceptions.

Those of us in the South would have accurately guessed French as the second language in Louisiana. But it's also second in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. It must be the Canadian influence. The second language in North Dakota is German.

Moving on down the maps at the businessinsider.com link we get to one where they've removed English and Spanish. So it's basically the third language except for those five that didn't have Spanish as the second language. And that's where it gets interesting. For example, who would have guessed that Vietnamese would get third place in Texas and Oklahoma? Or Chinese in New York, Russian in Oregon, or Arabic in Michigan?

It's worth a look if this sort of thing interests you. These remarkable maps probably came to our attention by way of Newmark's Door, or if not, some other interesting site.

June 15, 2014

There was a TV drama in 2012 called Political Animals about a former first lady serving as Secretary of State. By the way, her ex-husband, the ex-president, had a reputation as a womanizer and brilliant political strategist.

Sound familiar? To those of us not in camp Hillary it looked like an attempt by show biz biggies to make that fictional Hillary Clinton look like the greatest thing for our country since Windows 8.

There was only one season of the show, and it ended with lots of questions in the air about whether she would run for president. I suppose they're waiting to see whether Hillary will run. If she doesn't, that'll be the end of "Political Animals."

But wait. What's this? Madam Secretary -- a different cast and crew, but with a lovable and efficient Secretary of State. They don't miss a beat. If "Political Animals" didn't do its job, you can be sure "Madam Secretary" will do it's best to get get this fictional multi-tasking Super Secretary imprinted in the minds of impressionable voters.

June 13, 2014

Each Friday we try to display the best of the photos snapped by the Fox Cam at the bone yard. Sometimes there's some drama, and sometimes it's boring. This was one of the boring ones.

There was, however, one confrontation. Looks like Old Crooked Tail had a stand-off with Black Cat. The fox backed off. Too bad those canines haven't discovered the pack advantage -- one fox distracts the cat while another one steals the food. Maybe there aren't enough foxes to form a pack.

June 12, 2014

Dave Brat beat Eric Cantor in the Virginia Republican Primary -- a remarkable event. It's very difficult to unseat an incumbent in any case. The Republican establishment is so established that it is indeed remarkable that a challenger could do it. There's no shortage of articles attempting to explain why. But the Daily Caller's Christopher Bedford has a different take. See The Media Is Missing The Point Of Cantor’s Defeat:

It was the attempts by the Cantor team and other establishment Republicans in Virginia to bully, exclude and defeat grassroots conservatives in his district and elsewhere that made his defeat essential to send a message to Washington,” conservative Virginia activist and writer Mark FitzGibbons told TheDC.

Seems that Republican Party participants use a tactic called "slating" to try to get control of the nominating mechanism in Virginia. Slating -- it sounds like a throw back to Reconstruction days -- is when a large number of people agree in advance on a list of names of people they want to represent them in a convention. When that group votes and they are the majority, their slate wins.

Cantor's group did it and won the first time. But he ticked off a lot of people, so when conservatives and Tea Party activists went to work they had an easy time getting out the vote.

So amnesty was only part of the problem. Cantor dissed his constituents, tried to stack the deck, and ultimately lost the vote.

Edwards is being investigated on multiple allegations of playing politics with his investigations and altering his reports to benefit senior executive branch officials. In addition, the Washington Examiner has learned that earlier reports of possible misconduct were brushed aside.

It took the release of a Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee report in late April corroborating many of the complaints about Edwards for the Homeland Security Department to place the 20-year career employee on administrative leave.

Read the whole thing to get the horrifying details. Unfortunately, it's looking more and more like the disease may infect the entire bureaucracy.

And the msm still search for excuses for why voters want to oust the incumbents. Sigh.

June 10, 2014

An invasion of kids. This seems like something out of Africa where children are recruited or kidnapped to serve a warlord. Except in this case the kids are sent by their parents to a shot at the good life. "Place yourself at their mercy and they'll have to take care of you." And it isn't an African warlord who expects to benefit, it's the President of the United States.

Did President Obama plan this? The desire to enter the U.S. illegally from the South has been there for a long time. But talk among politicians of amnesty has only encouraged that. The timing is just right. Those who want to enforce border security as a prelude to immigration reform will be portrayed as heartless meanies just prior to this year's elections. Think of the children.

We know it's coming. There will be thousands of kids being held hostage as tools for politicians. Prepare for sad story upon sad story detailing the children's hardships and travails along the treacherous journey North as well as the awful conditions awaiting them if they are sent home. Get out your handkerchiefs.

June 09, 2014

With a President so concerned about U.S. servicemen held prisoner in foreign countries, why no offer to swap for U.S. Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi? He's being held in a Mexican jail because he inadvertently crossed the border with guns in his vehicle.

“Why don’t we set up a trade? But this time, instead of five Taliban, how about five Democrats? I’m thinking John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, couldn’t we send them to Mexico?”

Very funny, but that misses the mark. Mexico doesn't want Kerry, Clinton, and Pelosi. And don't ask them what they do want. Obama just might give they back Texas with a bow and an apology. We'd have to fight for independence all over again.

June 08, 2014

With so many recent graduates this year this might be a good time for a guidepost on what they can expect. There must be millions of them. And Bromygod.com has pinned down a few, with photos to boot. See 22 Things That Make You Realize You’ve Grown Up.

Some of the good ones:

6:am is when you get up, not when you go to bed. You feed your dog Science Diet instead of McDonald's leftovers. Sleeping on the couch makes your back hurt. You go from 130 days of vacation time to 14.

And finally, my favorite:

You hear your favorite song in the elevator.

Welcome to the real world, kids. Blink your eyes and you'll be a senior citizen.

The mayor and the city council here in Midland, Texas, are falling all over themselves in anticipation of the demolition of the old courthouse and construction of a new skyscraper. It's not as if we're on an island with nowhere else to go. Midland is in the middle of nowhere. There's a lot of unused land all around available for office buildings.

Maybe it's a distaste for old buildings. Other cities around the globe cherish their old building. But not here.

This came to mind as I ran across a series of then and now photos showing the area and communities near Normandy Beach. There was a pretty big war that took place in the early and mid forties. You may have heard.

These two are good examples of before and after.

One photo shows battle damage. Note the mortar hole in the roof. The next photo shows the same building in the present. Just because something suffers a little bit of wear and tear and brutal warfare doesn't mean it's ready for demolition.

June 07, 2014

The story brings tears to my eyes every time. It's the story of our guys on D-Day at Pointe-Du-Hoc. For many it was a suicide mission. They were fodder to keep the enemy guns so busy they would eventually be overwhelmed. And it worked. What a courageous bunch of guys they were.

June 06, 2014

We're set up to photograph the urban foxes, and most of the time it's a boring scene. But occasionally there's some drama worthy of a display here on Fox Friday. The feral cats make their presence known when there's food out, but they're just photo bombers for our purposes as 3/4ths of the photos are of the cats.

The cats are tough and protective, but on one night the fox arrived after a cat began feasting. Watch what happened.

There are two drumsticks out there. Calico II is happily munching away on one. Hello, what's this? Old Crooked Tail slips in nonchalantly, grabs the other one. And she's gone. Yes! Score one for that silky smooth fox!

The cat gave it up without a fight. Maybe the memory of a few night ago are still fresh. That's when another feral cat whipped her tail. See below:

June 05, 2014

The other day Booktv.com played a discussion among the three co-authors of "U.S. Marshals: Inside America's Most Storied Law Enforcement Agency." Click here to watch it.

The Marshal's service doesn't investigate or solve crimes, they just find and arrest fugitives. So it's a dangerous job. The authors ended up telling anecdotes from their work, and all were quite entertaining. One fellow told about how one of his colleagues went to the retirement party for a long time FBI agent. He asked the FBI agent how many times he had to draw his gun in the line of duty. The FBI agent proudly answered that he had not had to pull out his weapon one time during his 22 years of service. The U.S. Marshal agent did some on-upping with, "I draw my gun seven times before lunch!" (55:54)

The USDA handles food stamps, so maybe they need the armor to protect themselves from recipients wanting more. Or maybe it's the corporate farmers impatient for their subsidies. In any case, it's another bureaucracy with an "us and them" culture arming themselves against citizens .

June 04, 2014

The UN's World Health Organization has previously indicated that it wants to put electronic cigarettes in the same category as tobacco. And that would severely hamper the industry as well as customers' access to the product.

We talked about E-cigs before, noting that they are a gift from heaven for some people. Not only are there addicted smokers who might like to quit pumping smoke and tar into their systems. But there are also those people suffering from some malady caused by an overactive immune system. Nicotine slightly impairs the immune system, and that's just what it takes to rid some bodies of those annoying afflictions.

Those people don't need the UN to tell them what they can do with their bodies. According to a Reuters article in NYPost.com, 53 "leading scientists" told WHO that treating e-cigs like tobacco would do more harm than good. To wit:

“These products could be among the most significant health innovations of the 21st century — perhaps saving hundreds of millions of lives. The urge to control and suppress them as tobacco products should be resisted,” the experts wrote.

June 03, 2014

John Yoo has a short, thoughtful treatise about the contest sure to develop between Congress and the White House with a White House seeking to conceal as much information as possible. See The Coming Clash on Benghazi. He predicts there will be three major legal issues that will need to be resolved: executive privilege, the right against self-incrimination, and contempt.

Here is a summary:

Executive Privilege - Congress has the power of oversight and the right to get the information necessary to do its job. However, the President's people might claim "Executive Privilege" to protect information that should stay secret to protect diplomatic or military operations. But there's a snag. To make that claim would be an admission that the President actually received information and advice during the attack. Furthermore, the damage at Benghazi has already been done, and surely the diplomatic and military practices in place there are not still in use elsewhere, so any disclosure wouldn't be damaging. Besides, the committee could agree to keep it secret anyway.

Taking the 5th - It's likely that the President's people may take the 5th. (The one amendment the President likes, as the old joke goes.) The committee could offer immunity, but if they don't or the witnesses still won't talk then the committee could find them in contempt.

Contempt - Now we have a problem. The Executive Branch is in charge of criminal prosecution, so a contempt charge would be subject to an Attorney General who is extremely dedicated to the President. So expect no attempts at prosecution. That leaves Congress to exercise its own power to punish for contempt. John Boehner has already expressed a reluctance to do that. So it's anybody's guess whether Congress would do anything. To quote Yoo's closing sentence:

In the end, Congress has the authority to respond by invoking its own constitutional powers, but whether the House will flex its constitutional muscles will require political courage that is rare in Washington.

On the other hand, a lot of people will be watching. And it will be much easier to be courageous when millions of eyes are on them.

We redicule the Luddites for trying to slow progress. But they were the ones who experienced some real suffering.

Mr. Strain fears that the same thing could happen again as the technological revolution advances. He could be right, especially since our schools are doing such a poor job of preparing students for the jobs that are still there much less the jobs that don't exist yet.

June 01, 2014

The pickup trucks cruising down the boulevard with a couple of long guns in a rack in the rear window seem to have gone the way of the built in eight-track tape player. These days it's all about concealment.

Some of them require a little bit of remodeling, but others are quite simple. My favorite is the handgun in a green holster that appears to be stuck to the carpet of the console wall. If it's Velcro then it's conveniently removable. The Ferrari logo on the steering wheel is a nice touch, too.

Then there's the semi-auto long barrel with short stock strapped to the back of the fold down back seat. Nice idea, although it might take a moment for the driver to retrieve it.

Meanwhile, it's good to remember that thieves love to rip off loose items from vehicles whether the doors are locked or not. Even if the property isn't in view it's vulnerable. I'm reminded of the tactic a friend uses. He keeps a cable lock in his vehicle, and whenever he has to leave a weapon in there he locks it to the structure under the seat. A dedicated burglar could eventually steal it, but the time it would take to defeat the cable lock should discourage the typical smash and grab offender.